Pain's Crystal Tears
by Midnight's Queen
Summary: NOT compatible with the movie. This will turn into a J/S eventually.. Child abuse and other such topics are covered, as well as strong language. Please R&R. Leannapotter is the coauthor and deserves 60 percent of the credit. She is a genius.
1. Prologue

**A/N 1: I own nothing of the Labyrinth. It all goes to the wonderful Jim Henson & Co.**

**A/N 2: I need to have feedback that tells me whether or not to continue this or delete it and burn the pages on which it was written. Thank you. **

**A/N 3: This is highly off the mark of the movie or the book. It involves child abuse, neglect, thoughts of suicide, harsh language, and other such topics. Please, please, PLEASE don't flame me for this.**

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Prologue~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sarah Williams was born on February 25, 1971. This was to an 18 year old Linda Williams, who hemorrhaged out before the doctors could do anything to help her. So Sarah's birth was the main cause for her father's pure loathing of her. Still, he took her in out of his sense of duty, ignoring her when possible. This caused her to bury herself in fantastical stories, a way to escape a harsh reality of having nobody to care for her and having to fend for herself. This went on for 10 years, when her father married a woman named Caryn who already had 3 children. That was when her life went downhill.


	2. 5 Years Later

**This is to Chichi 89, Eleve Osirian, and Midnightjen for their fabulous support and encouragement. **

**Disclaimer: I do not, in any way, shape, form, or delusion, own Labyrinth. But I can dream…**

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Chapter 1~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sarah slumped against the bathroom door. In the 5 years since her father had married Caryn, her life had been nothing but beatings and babysitting. A few hours of broken sleep was the best she had as a reprieve, since her stepmother had had a baby boy a few months ago. Sarah sighed and made a movement as if to get up when Caryn's voice sounded through the door.

"Sarah! You fucking ungrateful bitch, get your lazy ass out here NOW!" Caryn screeched, giving the door a kick to emphasize her words. Sarah squeezed her eyes closed for a second before opening the door reluctantly. Just as she knew it would, the second the door opened a broom was swinging towards her. She tried jumping back, but it was a futile attempt. Caryn only yanked her forward, slamming her into the opposite bedroom door and continued the onslaught. Each blow was punctuated by a word.

"We feed you, give you a warm place to stay, and warm clothing! And HOW do you repay us?! You are ungrateful- You can't even do the little we ask of you right! How DARE you ask to go out? Fucking ungrateful brat! I should ¾" At this, Caryn broke off as the broom snapped in half. She threw away the pieces and told Sarah to get up.

"Your father and I are taking a trip for a few days. We will be taking Toby, but you will need to stay home from school to be there for the older kids. I expect the house to be spotless when we get back, and you should expect worse if one of the kids complain. Consider yourself warned!" At this, Caryn stalked down the hallway to join Sarah's father at the door, where he was waiting with Toby and the three of them left.

The second the car left the drive, Sarah ran up to her small bedroom near the attic. She read the beginning of the Labyrinth, her favorite book, and sighed.

"I wish the goblins had come and taken ME away before I made this decision," she said, then went to the kitchen. Once she had grabbed her favorite pairing knife, she paused for a second to make sure the children were asleep before laying the cool, sharp edge against her thigh.

"I'm sorry," she whispered to no one as she plunged the knife deep into her tender flesh, dragging it down in a jagged motion and watching the blood flow in a detached manner.

Her last conscious thought was "_I wish the Goblin King had come and saved ME before this," _before she passed into a blissful state of blackness.


	3. Half wishes and the Words

Author's Note: This story is now Co authored with leannapotter, who is responsible for the vast majority of this chapter

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Chapter 2~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jareth paced in frustration. He had to rescue the High Princess' daughter, and soon. The problem was that the girl, no matter how much she loved fantasy stories, had no idea that he actually existed. What he needed was to have somebody to wish her away.

"BY THE BLOODY GODS!" he snarled menacingly, throwing several ancient, priceless books to the ground. The reason being because he had run out of chairs (there had been three), and the window no longer made that minusculey, satisfying smashing sound when it broke… Because it was already broken.

"I need somebody to make a fucking wish!" He resumed his furious pacing, only to freeze in his tracks. Somebody had made a half wish, a rhetorical wish that he couldn't answer. He quickly recognized the person who had made the wish¾ only somebody with High Fae blood could make even a half wish that strong. He needed somebody to make a wish in the household NOW, before it was too late.

Zaralynn woke up to a parched throat and a bad dream. She slowly relaxed as she took in her darkened surroundings with an odd sense of relief- nothing was out of place. She remembered a rather funny part of that night's story, Labyrinth. Her bad feelings gone, she quickly remembered how thirst she was and swung her feet out of her warm bed and onto the plush carpet, wriggling her toes in pleasure as she did every time she got out of bed.

Silently creeping out of her room, she wondered if Sarah would read her another chapter of the story if she asked nicely enough. Zaralynn may not have particularly liked Sarah, as she could be rather harsh at times, but the girl loved the wonderful stories that Sarah told at bedtime. As she arrived at her destination, she halted in shock and disbelief. Sarah was on the ground in a pool of crimson, aromatic blood, still clutching an oddly familiar, rather small knife and unconscious. Zaralynn's mind went completely blank and the young girl shouted the first thing that popped into her head:

"I WISH THAT THE GOBLIN KING WOULD COME AND SAVE SARAH RIGHT NOW!!!"

Jareth suddenly stood up straight. Was that… Yes, it was! Someone had wished… They had wished him to come and save Sarah. But it couldn't be. Jareth had been watching her for years now, and he knew that voice well enough to know that it was the oldest of Sarah's stepsisters. He had never thought that her stepsisters had liked her overmuch, but he wasn't complaining.

Jareth quickly transformed into his owl form and took off out of his broken window, making a mental note to fix it later. He flew out over the labyrinth and beyond, until he came to a window set right in midair at the top of a hill overlooking the labyrinth. Inside, he could see a terrified little girl's face staring in shock at something he could not see.

The window was just big enough for Jareth to fit through in his owl form, and he flew in, the tips of his wings brushing the windowpanes ever so slightly, and landed on the kitchen floor in his true form.

The little girl stared up at the Goblin King, wide eyed and slightly slack jawed before she squeaked with terror and ran out of the room. Jareth sighed and summoned a crystal.

"Go after her," he whispered into the small orb, and it did as it was told, floating out of the room and following Zaralynn. In the morning, she would remember nothing of what had taken place. He looked around the room, and simply blinked. The rest of Sarah's so- called "family" would not remember her unless he deemed it fit to remind them.

Jareth knelt beside Sarah. She had already lost a lot of blood, and he hoped that he hadn't come too late. He inspected the cut carefully. It was deep enough to do quite a bit of damage, but she had not quite penetrated the muscles, which was good. He placed his hand gently over her thigh and chanted, "Restitute cruor, restituo cruor, restituo cruor…" The blood that was pooling around Sarah and soaking into her clothes slowly but surely drew back into the wound, and Jareth did not stop chanting until the last of it had been sucked back into Sarah's body.

"Vigoratus vulnus," he whispered, and the cut healed. Jareth gently picked her up and carried her out of the kitchen to the front door. He nodded at the front door, and the doorknob turned and the door opened. On the other side, instead of the walk leading to the street, was the bleak landscape of his kingdom on the top of the very hill he'd come from. He turned around and the door closed with a snap before disappearing. He took a deep breath as the bulk of his power returned to him. He held Sarah a little tighter to him before he disappeared from the spot, leaving behind nothing but the glitter that slowly fell to cover the hilltop.

He reappeared in the middle of a forest, on a trail that was barely more than a foot wide twisting through the trees and underbrush. Jareth swore as he maneuvered his way around felled branches and trees while trying to keep from jostling Sarah around too much. He didn't have far to go, but the path was rarely used and was nearly impossible to navigate.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, he came upon a gate. Half the size of most large estates (most estates had gates twelve feet high or more), the gate was made of bronze, with the family crest in the middle, two rearing dragons facing each other as if they were about to fight over a large sun.

The guards on either side of the gate snapped to attention when they first saw the Goblin King, but relaxed a little when they saw him. Jareth rearranged Sarah's head so that her face was buried in his shoulder. Nobody had ever seen her here before, but she was the spitting image of her mother, and everybody knew what the High Princess looked like.

The guard, Jareth believed his name was Garathaine, nodded at him and opened the gate.

"What's that you got there, Yer Highness?" he asked. When Jareth shot him a warning look, he instantly looked away and started whistling nervously.

Jareth started up the cobbled walkway through a much less dense section of the forest. He finally came out in a clearing just big enough for the enormous mansion in front of him. When he got to the door, he realized that he had no free hands to knock with, so in his brief moment of insanity, he rapped his head hard on the door three times.

The door was opened by a rather short elven girl. Jareth knew her. Her name was Arathaine.

"Arathaine, go wake up Lord Galanodel," Jareth ordered. She began to run off when he added, "And bring me something for my headache!"

Jareth walked slowly up the large, red carpeted staircase to a lavishly decorated guest bedroom. He gently, but reluctantly, placed Sarah on the king sized feather bed, silently resting her head high on the pillows. He checked her thigh, making sure that the healing wasn't ruined by the strenuous walk on the trail, then moved to take her pulse and breathing. Seeing that everything was normal, he ran a simple diagnostic spell to make sure that her brain wasn't damaged by the blood loss. Satisfied, he turned to see a ruffled Lord Galanodel standing in the doorway, his eyes wide and shocked.

Jareth, old friend, what are you doing here? Is everything all right with you and your kingdom? Who is that?" He asked in rapid succession, not giving Jareth a chance to respond. He stepped further into the room, trying to see who was lying on the bed behind Jareth.

"Calm down, Galanodel. I will explain everything later, but right now, I need your help in figuring out what is wrong with Sarah. She won't wake up, and I know that you are the best healer in the Underground." Jareth stepped aside to reveal Sarah, unconscious and with fever spots high on her cheekbones, which was never a good sign. Galanodel stepped around Jareth to stand by the bed, and quickly checked her temperature. It came out to be 104.5 degrees, dangerously high. He quickly summoned several icepacks, placing them on her body in an attempt to bring down her temperature, while casting an advanced diagnostic spell, which checked her white blood cell count, red blood cell count, looked for any toxins in her blood, and for internal hemorrhaging or bruising. What he found shocked him. Sarah had a major infection on her blood, which was slowly poisoning her body and killing her. He called for a servant to bring him several herbs, and while he waited he asked for Jareth to tell him what happened.

"She was in a pool of her own blood when her oldest stepsister wished for me to save her. I restored the blood to her body, and that must have been when the infection started. I brought her here as fast I could, after making sure her family wouldn't remember her. You should know whose daughter she is." Jareth said anxiously, trying to help as much as he possibly could. He had watched Sarah since birth, and even though her personality was suppressed by exhaustion and fear most of the time, he saw the person she could have been in her dreams, vital, happy, and overall, beautiful. He had fallen in love with her a long time ago, but was unable to interfere because of the laws of his magic. So he had been forced watched her year after year, being abused by her stepmother, ignored by her father, a mortal idiot who didn't know what a beautiful person his daughter was, and was unable to help her. Until tonight.

"Well, she should be ok if I can get her to swallow the herbs, but I'm not sure she can. However, she is thoroughly comatose, and it would be dangerous right now. She will make the night. But I wouldn't try anything right now." Galanodel said sadly, seeing his friend's anguished expression. They both looked at the comatose Sarah, hoping that she would wake up soon.


	4. The Awakening

**A/N: Sorry about the wait for the update. I've been bust, as has LP. Sorry. Enjoy the chapter and please review!**

~~~~~~~~Chapter 3~~~~~~~~

The first thing that went through Sarah's mind when she woke up... was that she was waking up. No blissful, eternal darkness, no final resting place. In fact. as far as she could tell, she wasn't even dead. The second thing that went through her mind was that she was freezing. The third thing she noticed was that she was definitely not lying on the kitchen floor anymore. She opened her eyes with a little difficulty.

The light that poured through the rather large open window temporarily blinded her. Her eyes slowly adjusted and she observed the most beautiful room she had ever seen. She was lying on a plush feather bed, which was DEFINITELY not her own. As her eyesight focused even more, she observed the bed frame, which, apparently, was a rich mahogany. Looking past the foot of the bed, she noticed a rather large, elegant armoire, which was such a deep color that she could only wonder if it was cherry. As her eyes traveled to the left of the room, she noticed a vanity and bedside table that looked as if they were made to match the armoire. She allowed her eyes to slowly start to take in the rest of the room. There was a bookshelf that matched the rest of the furniture and was full of thick looking books. Part of the floor was covered with a thick, luxurious looking, red brown rug. She looked to the door, then back down to her lap, then to the right side of the bed.

The strangest and most beautiful thing about the room, though, was right side of her bed. It was a man... She thought. A poet shirt covered the top part of him, though it exposed part of his chest. His pants were rather tight, showing off certain aspects of the male anatomy. The thought made Sarah sure she would, under normal circumstances, be the absolute opposite of cold. The most unusual thing about the man, though, was the fact that he was hanging upside down in midair, and his entire head was in a massive pile of white feathers that was on the floor. If she wasn't scared out of her mind, not to mention extremely depressed, she would have laughed. And so Sarah did the first thing that came to her mind: She screamed bloody murder.

Almost immediately, three people burst into the room. One was an older man, with long, sleek-looking midnight-black hair. His eyes were as black as his hair, but not unfriendly. In fact, they were full of a kind of humor that reminded Sarah of a warm fire that danced merrily in a fireplace... as if she had ever seen one. But she had read enough books and seen enough movies to know what they should look like. The other man, who looked like a younger version, a MUCH younger version, of the older man, had a startled and alarmed looked on his face, as if he were ready to fight anything that may be in the room. Beside them was the most beautiful woman that Sarah had ever seen. She, too, had jet-black hair that was pinned up, but Sarah had the feeling that, if left down, it would reach all the way to the floor. Her eyes were a dark, rich chocolate brown, and were so wide that Sarah had the feeling that if it were possible they would have popped right out of her head. The three people all had rather pale skin that was flawless looking, and were around 5 feet 3 inches tall. They relaxed as they saw Sarah and... the man who was hanging upside down? The woman looked over to the older man, which was when Sarah saw that her ears were... pointed? Sarah, once again, let out a bloodcurdling scream and would've bolted to the other side of the room if she wasn't so weak. As it was, she was barely able to lift the blankets above her head and chant, "This isn't real.. This isn't real.." over and over, apparently to try to block out reality.

"Galanodel, I think we should get Jareth's head out of those ridiculous feathers," Sarah heard one of them say. She assumed it was the woman by the tinkling tones of her voice. Slightly curious, Sarah poked her head out from beneath the covers just in time to see the feathers disappear. Yet again, Sarah had a feeling that if she weren't so scared and depressed, she would have laughed. The man's mouth was open and a little puddle of drool was on the floor. The three people, who had started to come into the room , presumably to get the man down, stopped cold. They blinked, looking at the man, then burst into very loud, slightly hysterical laughter.

The man hanging upside down started awake, blinking from the harsh sunlight and looking around in confusion. He noticed the three not-quite -people laughing first, and the confusion clouding his expression vanished.

"GALANODEL! IF YOU DON'T GET ME DOWN THIS INSTANT, I'LL-" at this, she stopped. While he was yelling (screaming), he had started thrashing and twisting his body. What made him stop was the sight of Sarah, sitting up in bed and staring at him with wide, frightened, and confused eyes. In spite of the expression on her face, his eyes lit up and a smile threatened to split his face.

"Sarah! You're awake! Ho-oomph!" He was cut off as he fell from his position in midair and on to the stone part of the floor. Despite landing with a painful sounding THUNK, he quickly bounced back up and made his way over to the bed. He sat down beside her, looking concerned, and Sarah hurriedly pulled the covers up over her head once more.

"Jareth, you'll frighten her!" scolded somebody, most likely the female not-quite-person, judging by the musical tone of the voice. Sarah slowly retreated from her hiding place, her curiosity overcoming her fear again temporarily.

"I-is that y-your name?" She asked hesitantly in an almost-whisper, her voice quiet and hoarse. Seeing that all eyes had snapped to focus on her, her deathly white face regained some color, obviously a blush to everyone else. She tried to hide again, but the man, Jareth, gently pulled back the blanket so that she could not retreat under it. Her face regained even more color, making it even more obviously a blush. She looked down, too embarrassed to even try to meet his eyes.

Jareth gently raised her chin with his other hand and looked her in the eye.

"Don't be embarrassed," he told her quietly. " You had a right to ask my name. You didn't know." She jerked her chin away and looked down again. Jareth let out a very melancholy sigh. He then brightened again and asked, "Are you feeling okay? Are you cold? Hungry? Tired? Uncomfortable?"

Sarah was shocked that he seemed to genuinely care if she felt okay or not. She blinked, then slowly shook her head. If this stranger was going to care, then she wasn't going to mess it up by being too demanding. She was sure this Jareth guy would have believed her, but as soon as she put her head back down, she shivered involuntarily and her stomach audibly growled. One of the others, forgotten until now, snickered and Sarah went as red as she possibly could under the circumstances.

Jareth was both hurt and surprised that she would so boldly LIE to him, but he did not show it, merely informed her dryly, "You're not going to be condemned for asking for help, you know."

Sarah weakly covered her face with her hands and sank back into the pillows as far as Jareth would let her. How could my body betray me like that? she thought to herself, embarrassed that they caught her. Now they'll get rid of me for sure!

"Is there anything simple we can feed her?" Jareth asked, concern saturating his voice. The beautiful female just nodded and walked out of the room.

Jareth watched as Analynn walked out of the room, then turned to the other two males in the room and asked, "Well, why don't you introduce yourselves instead of standing there and gawking?"

The younger being stepped forward grinned at Jareth, then turned toward Sarah, bowed, and said, "Hello, Sarah. My name is Breton. I'm glad to see you're feeling better."

Sarah blinked and said, in a hesitant whisper, "N-nice to m-meet you..." Her voice trailed off and she looked like she would take off running if she could.

Jareth rest a hand on one of hers, trying to comfort her. "It's okay, Sarah. We want you to get better," he whispered softly. "We aren't going to hurt you, I promise you that, precious." Hearing him speak this in such an earnest, honest voice, not to mention the endearment by which he had called her, reassured the frightened girl a little. She let out a tiny, very tiny, smile. She looked at the older man, looking slightly less afraid.

"My name is Galanodel. I'm the one who healed you." The older being said, stepping forward and giving her a slight hug. She stiffened in surprise and unease and he let go quickly. Just then, Analynn came back into the room with a bowl of steaming broth and a small piece of bread. She set up a try in front of Sarah and set the food on it with a smile.

"I'm Analynn. I hope you're feeling better; you were asleep for quite some time.", she told Sarah.

Sarah stared at the food in front of her, as if afraid it was going to eat her before she ate it. Hesitantly, she picked up the spoon and filled it with some of the broth. Glancing up at the others, they nodded encouragement. She blew on the broth and then placed it in her mouth. She held it there for several moments, savoring the taste of the delicious liquid, before finally swallowing. She waited a few moments more. She decided that no, it was not poisoned and she spooned more into her mouth. The faces around her seemed to brighten considerably. Sarah tore off a piece of the bread and placed it in her mouth, still a little wary. She chewed slowly and deliberately, but she found nothing wrong with it, so she swallowed.

Sarah could feel her strength returning as she ate, and she was very grateful. It didn't take long for the food to disappear after Sarah had convinced herself that no one had poisoned it. When she was done, she noticed that Jareth and Galanodel had left. Analynn was busying herself by clearing away the remains of Sarah's meal and the boy, Breton, was seated at the window, watching something outside.

Sarah once again turned to Analynn.

"Miss, uh...", Sarah started, and Analynn smiled at her.

"Just Analynn, Sarah.", the woman replied kindly.

Sarah nodded slightly. The meal had done her a great deal of good. "Er, right... how... how long did I sleep?"

Analynn walked over to the door and pulled a rope. Second later, a young man walked through the door and bowed to Analynn.

"Yes, my lady?", he asked in a deep voice.

Analynn handed him the remains of Sarah's meal. "Please take these down to the kitchens and bring us up some juice, Crandall." The man bowed and left. Analynn turned toward Sarah and smiled. "You were asleep for a little under three days."

Sarah frowned. "How did... how did I get here?"

Analynn's kind smile widened. "Jareth rescued you.", she answered, a very odd tone to her voice.

"But... I don't even... know him." Sarah was getting more and more confused by the second. Analynn's eyes twinkled. If only Sarah knew.


End file.
